New Orleans, LA -- Vice President Gore announced today a competition
for 20 new Empowerment Zones to create jobs and business opportunities
for economically distressed parts of urban and rural America.

Gore, who chairs President Clinton's Community Empowerment Board,
announced Round II of the Empowerment Zone initiative today in an
address to the National Conference of Black Mayors meeting in New
Orleans.

The Vice President noted a recent Standard & Poor's report
concluding that the creation of empowerment zones, along with other
economic development tools, can help cities move toward their economic
goals.

The 15 new urban and 5 new rural zones will join the 72 urban areas
and 33 rural communities that President Clinton and Vice President Gore
designated as Empowerment Zones and Enterprise Communities in December,
1994.

"The Empowerment Zone initiative is helping reverse the years of
decline in many of our cities and rural communities," the Vice
President said.

"Through our empowerment agenda, we have turned Washington's
traditional approach upside down -- working hand-in-hand with mayors,
listening to communities, supporting bottom-up innovation and
encouraging flexibility. Today, our cities are stronger and our
neighborhoods are healthier as the result of our efforts to work with
and empower America's communities."

Along with more private investment, the initiative has helped
create thousands of jobs that are now filled by people who have
traditionally lacked access to economic opportunity, and helped provide
job training and educational opportunities for nearly 45,000 residents
of Empowerment Zones and Enterprise Communities.

In addition, the program has helped create more affordable housing
opportunities; allowed communities to address important public safety,
infrastructure and environmental concerns; and provided social services
including affordable health care, child care and youth development
programs.

"Empowerment Zones are powerful engines for job creation and
economic growth that can transform some of our poorest neighborhoods
and the lives of people living there," Housing Secretary Andrew Cuomo
said. "These zones create a partnership for success between the
federal government, local government, the businesses community and
neighborhood residents."

The new Empowerment Zones designated following this competition will
be eligible to receive a variety of new federal tax incentives to
stimulate job creation and economic development in economically
distressed areas of cities and rural communities. In addition to the
tax incentives, the President's 1999 budget proposes $1.5 billion in
funding over 10 years for social services in the 15 new Empowerment
Zones and $200 million for the 5 rural Zones.

Round II Empowerment Zones will benefit from two new tax incentives
-- tax-exempt bond financing and immediate tax-deductibility of the
costs of new machinery and equipment. Empowerment Zones with
populations of 100,000 or more will be eligible to issue up to $230
million in bonds, while smaller Zones will be able to issue up to $130
million in bonds. This lower-interest funding, which will not be
subject to state caps or limits on the size of bond issues, should give
communities a significant resource for stimulating economic activity
within the Empowerment Zones.

Secondly, through an increase Section 179 deduction, businesses in
the Empowerment Zones can deduct up to $37,500 of all or part of the
cost of qualifying property -- such as machinery and equipment -- in
the year it is placed in service instead of recovering the cost over a
period of years through depreciation.

In 1994, the Clinton Administration selected nine Empowerment Zones
-- six urban and three rural -- which entitled them to receive federal
tax incentives and direct funding for physical improvements and social
services.

These communities fashioned comprehensive revitalization strategies,
with all local stakeholders - residents, non-profits, business and
government -- at the table. In addition, Los Angeles and Cleveland were
designated full empowerment zones by the Administration in January of
1998.